Boy Behaving Badly 1 (continued)

Here are, as promised, the photos of the little Boy behaving very badly.

 

Notice the cranky face even though the car was awesome and made all the right sounds and had flashing lights.

 

No Pappa! I don't want to hold the hose!

 

Can I push all the buttons? What do you mean "NO"?

 

No Mamma! I don't want to hold the cool pole and slide down it like a fireman!

 

Get this hat off me now and I don't want to be close to the very nice man giving us an awesome tour!

First Friday: The circumcision issue.

I read a lot of blogs that really touches me like this one for example, and they inspire me to write these long and awesome posts about things like the perfectness of W's wrists or the way his hair falls. But I also read a lot about other things like circumcision or natural birth advocates and the whole breast vs. formula debate, which inspires me to write about these issues. Unfortunately it turns out I am not only inspired but also lazy so all these posts I write in my head tend to stay in my head and never see the light of day.
In order to better myself and be less lazy and more motivated and proactive I have now decided to do at least one proper post a week, every Friday about something inspiring with the appropriate links to the person who inspired me of course.

Today's topic will be circumcision.

I read a few days or weeks ago (who keeps track of time anyway) about this doctor in the USA who is specialized in circumcisions and who has taken it as his personal quest to ensure that all little boys in the US gets circumcised. He points to all these benefits of circumcision as better hygiene, reduced risk of STD:s, reduced risk of penile cancer and so on and so forth. I have read about these benefits before and maybe it's true but I think that the marginal difference it makes is redundant in comparison to the fact that you are in fact surgically removing a fully functional piece of your son's body. (Now you know where I stand) I understand the benefits of circumcision if you live somewhere where there is no access to condoms or clean water to clean yourself, but on the other hand if you have no clean water to clean yourself with then you probably won't have any better hygiene down there than an uncut fella.
Circumcision is still somewhat the norm for little boys in the US which is strange since it's the only place in the world who uses the procedure for non-religious reasons. In Europe where I'm from the norm is the opposite, and in all honesty I don't think that European men are stinky, disease ridden people just because they still possess their foreskin.
When my son was born we did not even have a conversation about it because it was never an option for us. I think my reasons and opinions are stronger and more emotional than J's but he never considered it either. For me the thought of cutting a piece of my newborns penis off just seemed barbaric. And besides who am I to chose for him weather he keeps his foreskin or not. At least like this he can chose to cut if off himself in the future, the other way around is way harder.
I watched this thing on TLC a while back about a boy who was turned into a girl after a doctor botched his circumcision and subsequently burned most of his penis off. It didn't turn out great and he eventually reassigned himself back into a boy and later in 2004 killed himself. Watching that reinforced my belief that we should not cut fully functional pieces off our bodies because you just never know if there are going to be complications. The fact that circumcision for the longest time took place without any anaesthetic, mind you that still happens today, is just scary. Did you know that before the 1970's surgery was performed on infants without anaesthetic because it was believed that they could feel no pain. Crazy!

Well that's all for me on this subject, feel free to post your own beliefs on the subject.

first day of spring.

I just handed over my report... now the waiting game begins. I still haven't gotten the results of my exam so god knows how long it'll take to get the results on this. On Tuesday the next course begins and I'll be learning all about international politics and conflicts. This is the one I'm the most exited about since I'm kind of hoping to go into conflict resolution in the future. I can't wait to get my books.

In other news the weather here in mtl has been lovely and we're spending more and more time outside. I can't wait for the weather to be warm enough so we don't have to wear coats anymore but I'm sure it'll come soon.

Yesterday it was 13°C (that's 55°F) outside and sunny. It was absolutely lovely outside so we took W to the park. He played like never before and was so happy he danced and ran at the same time too cute. Our neighbours are moving back to Switzerland in a week or so so they decided to give away their couch and left it on the curb for someone to pick it up. We decided to channel the Simpsons and do a couple of family photos. It is potentially the ugliest couch ever with the different coloured maple leaves on it but still someone picked it up over night and it's now gone.

Well yesterday was lovely and as crappy as it is outside today it still gave me hope that summer might still come this year.

Stuck

I am now officially stuck. I have be working on this report for what feels like forever now and I just can't get it done. I feel like I am somehow missing the point of the assignment. So I am taking a breather and sending it off for review with my mom and me and W packed up our stuff and went to the botanical gardens to look at butterflies. Not the dead pinned to a cushion behind glass kind, but the free flying kind. They are beautiful but a bit creepy crawly for my taste. I kind of jumped and held W very close as soon as one of them flew a little too close to my head... or his head for that sake.

the butterflies are hungry too

pretty but very creepy crawly

my own personal butterfly!

Checking out the moth cocoons.

in the land of Canada (and Australia)

Sorry for the lack up updates I have been a busy busy bee. Last week I had my exam to write and this week I am doing my report. I have to write a 4000 word report on the differences and similarities of the Canadian and Australian political systems. If you guys have any awesome words of wisdom on the subject please do tell!

Anyway my head is swimming with information on the two countries and when I'm not taking care of W, writing my report or relax I am doing my citizenship application since I am now legible to apply. Woohoo!

So for more great details of our dull everyday life you guys will just have to stay tuned for when I will feel finished enough to write something here.

Lia

hey you!

Didn't I tell you to remind me not to ever ever ever again go to the biodome during school break?? I am pretty sure that I did... or maybe I didn't. Whatever I'll just blame you guys anyways!

So we went to the biodome today and it was packed. When we walked in the guy told us there was a 15 minute wait to buy your ticket to get in. I have a membership card so I just flashed that and got to go straight in with about 100 angry parents giving me evil eyes. Anyways made our way through the thing quite fast cause there were too many people to see any animals and then we had lunch. After lunch we went to the English showing of "The secrets of the Biodome" which was very cool and very quiet since we live in Quebec. Then we went home.

W fell asleep in the stroller on the Metro and slept for like 2 hours in there. He really loves his new stroller and so do I. My mom bought us the MacLaren Techno XT. It's fantastic.

I still have the sniffles and I still have my exam to do. I've almost finished 7 out of the 9 questions so it feels quite good so far.

the common cold

Today W had gymnastics this morning. I wasn't sure if I was gonna take him since he's been sick and all but this morning he was fine. He was playful and happy and he didn't even fight the snow pants. So off we went. We got there everything was fine until it was time to go inside. He did not want to. He refused to let go of his little mater car and just wanted me to hold him the whole time. He didn't want to dance with the other kids or do any of the activities, he just wanted to be held. Then another kid spotted his mater car and promptly demanded he'd get his cars out as well, his mom caved and gave him a car. W spotted the other car and decided he wanted both cars. He was very determined and cried and cried, the other mom encouraged her kid to share so we swapped cars. W was happy for a whole 30 seconds then he wanted mater back. He simply wanted to have both cars and he was not gonna settle for less.

That's around the time I decided to leave. One of the other moms asked me if I wanted her to see if W could get a sticker anyways (they get stickers at the end of the class) but I told her he did not deserve one. I then felt pretty bad all day for saying my son doesn't deserve a sticker. I mean he was not well behaved at all but on the other hand he was a bit sick still. I just thought that the behavior he showed at that class should not be encouraged by giving him the reward for a class well done when he didn't do it at all. Maybe I'm over thinking this... what do you think?

So we left and went grocery shopping instead. Then we had an absolutely lovely day at home. W was happy and playful and didn't ask for the TV or the pacifier a lot. He slept well ate alright and was a joy to be around. So he seems fine, now I'm the one feeling crappy. I have the sniffles also known as the common cold and the horror of the winter. When will we find a vaccine for the common cold?

wittle one

I have a headache, and W's been sick for the last 3 days. Yesterday his fever didn't go below 39°C (that's 102°F) all day. I gave him tempra but it just didn't do anything for the poor little one. In the evening I gave him motrin and down his fever went. Me and J were both agitated and worried and kept arguing and trying to decide if we had to take W to the hospital. He tends to have breathing difficulties when he gets sick and last time we ended up spending a night at the hospital because one of his lungs collapsed partially. You can read about that here. Below is a photo from that terrible night.


So naturally we get worried everytime he gets sick and especially when he gets a cough. We give him two different kinds of inhalers and keep a close watch on his breathing. W unlike most people doesn't like to sleep when he's sick, he'll fight and fight and fight until finally he'll fall asleep wherever he happens to be. Yesterday that was in the chair in front of the TV.


I hate it when he's sick. He's a little better now though. We'll see if he's good enough to go to the gymnastics tomorrow.
Now I'm gonna attempt to answer another couple of questions on my exam for my university course.

all those photos

When me and W landed in Sweden after a good 15 hours of traveling and not much sleep my mom picked us up at the airport and told me that I have 6 boxes (big boxes) waiting for me in my old bedroom (which by the way is not kept the same way I left it, my mom called me about 2 months after I moved out and told me she converted my room into an office) for me to go through. Yeah yeah yeah I said, I'll do it later. I didn't do it later at all actually, I left it for the second last day I was in the country.

I opened the first box and discovered a whole lot of photos. There were photos of me and my friends in school and me and ex-boyfriends and all the crazy people I met while living in hostels in England and while traveling. There were framed photos that used to hang on my walls and be in my bookshelves, there were photo albums I made with my own comments on the photos scribbled in silver pen on the black background. There were photos of my dad as a baby that my farmor gave me a while back and some photos of my mom when she was young. I spent most part of that day looking at old photos and remembering when they were taken and remembering the people in them and realizing how many of those people in those photos that I no longer know, that I haven't seen in years, that I can't remember their names.

There was this one photo in particular that really opened a floodgate of memories and feelings. It's a picture of me all dressed up at a party with this guy N that I barely knew at the time but had a huge crush on in time we grew to have quite a complicated relationship but not when that photo was taken. It was all new and I was so young and it felt so important what I felt for him at that time. I remember really wanting a picture of him and me and practically bribing one of our mutual friends to take my camera and force us to get in the picture together so it wouldn't seem like my idea. I was so happy to have that picture and I treasured it, I used to take it with me everywhere.

I also found the photos from the first three months I spent with my husband, only he wasn't my husband then. You can see some of those photos here. There are photos from my leaving party as I was leaving London and him to go back to Sweden to study music management. There are photos of me and E and M and all the fun we had during our time in London, there are photos of the tiny studio apartment me and E shared and of the bars we worked in. M met her J around the same time I met my J and they are still going strong and their little girl N is W's future wife.

There are photos of us roaming London, lovely London. It reminds me of the summer I was unemployed and living off my husband. We lived in this lovely house in Camden, it had 4 bedrooms and we were always at least 8 people sharing it. It was on this cobbled stoned little road just off Camden Road and I spent my days walking around London. J worked in Notting Hill so some days I used to steal his CD Walkman and walk there. I still can't listen to Postal Service without it bringing me back to warm summer days, walking along Hyde Park to Notting Hill.

I also found my old school photos, there were classphotos from ninth grade and this awkward photo of me and my then best friend J and this boy from our class that I barely knew. We all look very uncomfortable.

I ended up not doing more than two boxes all together cause it just took too long going through all those photos. Next time I go I have 4 more boxes waiting for me, maybe there is another one full of photos and memories, I kind of hope so.

The trip in pictures

Looking cute!

Sleeping on the plane across the Atlantic.

Being pushed around by the future wife...

Hanging out with auntie E.

Playing with the future wife and the future mother-in-law and auntie E.

Finding treasures at "rum för barn" (a room for kids) at the culture house.

Snowball fight!

Too busy watching "Howl's moving castle" to say goodbye to godmother I. Notice the W sized armchair.

the reason

I'm back! But I have yet to write about the trip. I'm sorry about that but I do have a good reason. Behold the cheek!


No I have not been beaten by J. I have simply been manhandled by my dentist. I returned home on Monday with a serious jet lag and a tooth ache so I made my way to the dentist Tuesday and had the troublemaker removed. It now hurts way more than it did before and my brain is porridge due to pain and medication and lack of food. I'll hopefully be back to some state of normalcy by the weekend so I promise I'll write about the trip then.

For now I'll just have to live with looking like me on the right side and looking like Rumer Willis on the left.

Off.

Tomorrow is the big day. Me and W are taking the plane to go see mormor for 10 days or so. It's a long trip and I have been stressing and packing like a mad person over the last week to get everything right. The hardest part is entertainment for the little guy. I am packing an ipod with movies and music and books and some toys. and lots of snacks.

So I just thought I'd let you know I might not update very frequently at all while I'm away since I tend to be very busy when I'm gone. But I promise I'll write a long post about the trip when I'm back again.

So behave yourselves!

Awesome!

If anyone of you have a little superhero at home just like I do, you might want to check this out. The lovely people over at "little window shoppe" are having a competition where you can win not just one but 2 awesome capes for your little superhero and his or her partner in crime.

Now don't go getting your hopes up since I am planning on winning this one myself but I guess you could always sign up for a chance to win anyways.

Check it out
http://littlewindowshoppe.com/win-a-superhero-cape-from-plum-pear-apple

School, Work and Gastro

W is sick again. He has gastro... nice. He started throwing up at 5.20 this morning and is not keeping anything down

this is how my blog started two days ago when I was supposed to write it. Then he threw up again, and again and my will to write just disappeared. Poor little tot threw up so many times I lost count until he finally fell asleep at 10.30.
Since then he's been better, still not fully himself and he's got some poop issues I won't talk about here.

Honestly, I haven't really felt like blogging this past week. I just started taking this university course on the internet (It's a distance course from Luleå Tekniska Universitet) and I started working on my project to take over the licensing business in Sweden. So I've been busy to say the least. I am also worrying a whole heaping lot about the fact that one of my book that I need for my course is not here yet and I'm supposed to hand in a report on the first 4 chapters of that book by Monday lunch. Great.
At least I got the first chapter of my other book. My mom bought it for me in Sweden and photographed the first chapter and sent me the pics so I could read it myself. I guess that's copyright infringement but I have no intentions on sharing the photos with anyone else and all the intentions of passing this course so I don't care. If I haven't mentioned it before I'm studying comparative politics. It's very interesting so far.

I contacted my first potential licensing "client" yesterday. It took me forever to get my e-mail to sound decent. My Swedish is clearly a lot worse than I thought it would be. Which doesn't bode well for my reports I have to do for school. Nothing says potential politics mayor as a report full of swenglish and grammar mistakes.

Well it's back to the books for me so I'll leave you with the cutest guitar hero you've ever seen!

frostbites

It's too cold. Only one song comes to mind.

Temptation season.

Today me and J and W went out for muffins and hot chocolate right after lunch, and before lunch we watched a bit of Monsters Inc. This might seem like a nice thing to do, and it is, but it's also something I never would have done last summer. I have noticed lately that all the principles I had and all the ideas I stood by before becoming a parent and in the first year of motherhood are slowly slipping away.

It started when I got pregnant really. I gave up everything harmful. I didn't have any coffee, hot chocolate, tea with caffeine, not a sip of anything alcoholic and no fast-food. J was a complete food nazi during my pregnancy and refused to give in to any of my cravings and made sure I didn't overindulge ("You're eating for two not like two"). As a result I was healthy and only gained 10 kg (25 lbs) during my pregnancy and I had lost it all, and more, by the time W was 4 months old. All the while I was breast feeding, which I did for 15 months, I kept it up. I didn't have any of the above mentioned things when I fed him and if I had a glass of wine I made sure W got to drink from my reserve of bottled pumped milk. I had it quite easy with the breast feeding. I had so much milk and pumping was easy so I had a big reserve in the freezer.

I talked big about my kid not watching any TV before the age of 2, and having no chocolate or candy of any sorts until he was at least 3 or 4. I would never give him fast food or let him eat macaroni and cheese from a box. I didn't want him to drink juice and I flat out refused to give him any formula of any sorts (he was given Välling instead which is an oat based beverage for young children).

It all went well, we made it through summer and fall and winter and summer and then something happened. Maybe it was the fact that I started working and J was alone with him in the mornings and took him to the boulangerie and gave him a chocolate chip cookie (he thought it was raisins). Or maybe it was that W was bigger and had more personality and curiosity and wanted what I was having. Or maybe it was that visit to McDonalds after I had my ct scan. Whatever it was it was the beginning of a downward spiral of all my values and big talk.

It started slow with W watching Feist on Sesame Street on Youtube with J. Then we started looking into what else we could watch and in the beginning of December, to get into the Christmas spirit, we started watching the Advent Calendar and the Grinch. *

Then came the cold and there is just nothing like hot chocolate on a cold cold day so it was a little sip here and another little one there. The juice was probably the first to go, when it was too hot in the summer and he refused to drink water, juice seemed like a good idea. And the macaroni and cheese is just so very practical when you have a fussy eater and no time. At least I give him an organic option and I mix in vegetables in there so it's not all bad. **

The candy I kind of sort of still stand by, but he's allowed cookies and he did eat a lot of dough over the holiday season. The fast food I blame J for. We were going out to see the cousins and we had to have lunch on the way and J wanted to go to Harvey's cause it's less bad then McD but then the Harvey's had closed so McD it was and it was good. The food came fast and there were apple slices and orange juice for W and he got a toy and he was happy. So we went again, and again until I finally said enough. Now we're having a fast food free year unless it's very special circumstances like a very long car ride somewhere.

Sometimes I get angry with myself for slacking so much with all of these things I had decided to be strict about. But I find that winter makes it harder to resist temptation. I mean we would never sit in and watch a movie in the afternoon in summer, and hot chocolate in summer is less tempting. Damn winter ruining my good intentions! And it's bloody cold too. -16°C (3.2°F) right now and tomorrow a high of -27°C (-16.6°F) or something equally cold. So here is a little something to warm your heart!

In my awesome winter cosy knitted shirt with the blankie of course.

Playing with Grand-Papa.


Gotta keep those toes warm.
After playing in the snow. Rosy red cheeks!

*I talk more about this here.

**I just learned to make my own mac and cheese so there will be no more boxes unless I have no time at all.

Snow

We've been out playing in the snow, here are some pictures.


At the cousins house outside Montreal.



With two of the three cousins F and L.


Hanging out in the snow.


Yesterday at Park LaFontaine. Very unhappy little boy.


Close up
So pretty.

Making snow angels.

1 is better than 2!

Me and W in the morning, lots of cuddles.

For the last three days I have had 2 kids. I had W as usual and I had his "cousin" L. L isn't really W's cousin, he's J's mother's cousin's son (or something to that effect) but since L's mom is close in age to J they grew up as cousins. Therefor L, being 6 months younger than W, is W's cousin.

Scoot, scoot, scoot!

It's crazy what difference 6 months does at this age. W is almost 19 months now and L just turned 1 on December 25th. I know W was always ahead of the curve and he was pretty strong and sturdy right from the get go and I don't remember him ever being so fragile and weak as L is. L can stand up but he just doesn't, when we try his legs just gives way under him and he sits right back down again. He doesn't crawl but scoots around on his bum, which is very cute actually, especially when W is copying him and they scoot alongside each other.

Holding hands while watching TV.

Having L around also made me realize how much personality our little ones have right from the get go and how different they are.
I guess you can say I've been blessed with the most awesome and fantastic little boy in the whole wide world. He is strong, he has cried but it was always for a reason and never for any real extended period or time, he's funny, he's a quick learner. He is good with food, people, animals and other kids. He's easy to bring along with you, he even handles trans-Atlantic flights with stop-overs (he's a pain but I've seen a lot worse on those flights). He sleeps good (knocking hard on wood), he loves reading and he's very cute.

I'll make a great older brother one day. I can do the feeding of the baby already!

L is not the same as W at all. It's somewhat weird the way he holds himself and what he can and cannot do. It's like he's developed all of his fine motor skills but skipped over the gross motor skills. He doesn't hold on to things or people for one which is what I think is the root to why he's not standing up. I mean he's not gonna go from sitting to standing without holding on to something. He doesn't seem to be able to get up to sitting from lying down either but I can be wrong about that one, I found that it was just easier to help him then to let him cry long enough to see if he could do it by himself. Now I'm sure he's probably gonna start doing the standing and the walking soon enough, certain kids are just late, but what baffles me is how good his fine motor skills are. That kid can handle a spoon like an adult. W can't handle the spoon as well as L can and he's got 6 months on him. In another way it's weird because L clearly has the brain of a one year old but he lacks the skills to perform the tasks he want's to do, so he gets frustrated and whines and cries.

Playing in the tub. Splish splash!

This is obviously not his fault, since he's just a tiny little baby still, but it makes it less pleasant to care for him when he whines. It didn't really help that he was with us for 3 hours longer than originally planned on the last day and that W had a fever of 39.9°C (that's 103.8°F).

Standing up with a bit of help...

Poor little thing has really dry skin too but I showed his mom what products we use on W and after 3 days his skin was so much better so I thought I'd share my skin care advice with you too.

If you or your baby has dry or sensitive or irritated skin you should use A-Derma. It's a French company and they use Rhealba oats in their cleansers and creams and that stuff is great. For W I use the soap free gel cleanser for hair and body in the A-Derma pediatrics line, then I moisturise his entire body and face with A-Derma Exomega cream and if he gets any kind of diaper redness or rash or very ry cheeks for instance, I use the A-Derma pediatrics Dermalibour stick on it and it's gone in 24 hours. Here in Quebec you can buy all those products conviently at Jean-Coutu.

W with a very high fever, resting on the floor.

Now I'm off to prep for dinner.

Woow-eeee!

In the past couple of weeks W has gone from sweet little boy to tape recorder. He hears everything I say and he repeats it back to me (us). This is awfully cute most of the time. He's gotten so good at the communicating business that it sometimes hard to understand that he understands us so well. I swear he understands French a lot better than me already the little bugger.

Watching Sesame street in the comfy chair.

Anyways, in the beginning of December to get into the Christmas spirit we started watching the advent calendar on SVT online (Swedish TV) every day and J started watching "How the Grinch stole Christmas" with him. At first we weren't realizing that we were actually making him watch TV since all we were doing was watch YouTube. But now we know that our plan to keep him TV free at least until he's 2 failed.

We console each other and try to make ourselves feel better by saying things like: "He only watches movies and limited clips we show him, not any TV", "We always watch it with him, so if he has questions or he points to anything we can explain to him" and "We don't use it as a babysitter". But I think we both feel a bit like failed parents.

At least he's got a healthy snack!

The good thing about the things we make him watch is that he loves it. He asks constantly for "the Goou" (the Grinch) and "Woow-eeee" (Wall-E) and the other day when he realized that there's a picture of Elmo on his diapers he pointed and said "La La La" (as in "Elmo's Song").

He has also as you can probably understand graduated from "Feist on Sesame Street" to "Wall-E", "101 Dalmatians" and "Howl's moving castle". He even watched an episode of "Sesame Street" since we just got PBS.

So cute my little man.

He's talking up a storm now, he repeats everything. J taught him to say "kickass" the other day so he's now walking around saying "kickack". It's fun when they start talking. I can listen to him all day. He's so cute, and he's got the cutest voice. Unfortunately most of his words sounds the same, they all sounds like "Bambe" bambe, means water, Bamse, blanket, poopoo and many other things so sometimes you have to guess.

Tomorrow we're off to the museum with Julie, we're gonna see the Warhole exhibition before it leaves Montreal on January 18. I think W will like it but we'll see tomorrow.